


Away

by TheHSPlayer



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Angst, Consequences of time travel attempts, Emotional Manipulation, Harassment, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:41:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23876347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHSPlayer/pseuds/TheHSPlayer
Summary: Zim would get normality back, at any cost.
Relationships: Dib/Zim (Invader Zim)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	Away

**Author's Note:**

> This was a little story I wrote on the fly a few days ago, and I wasn't sure to post it, but then I thought "fuck it". Not beta'd at all, barely gramatically checked, and super quick paced. I hope you like it.

"Hi Zim. I imagined you would call me. But I got direct orders from our Tallest, not to receive your communication" Skoodge sounded apologetic in his transmission, more like a voice message upon his attempt to contact him "I'm sorry, Zim"

He had tried, for months, getting to the Massive, to Skoodge, to anyone. When he heard the transmission from his old friend, he had the slight hope to receive information, but all he had was this. An order. to be ignored, a sentence that defined his fear.

"Transmission over" Computer announced.

"Again"

"Hi Zim. I imagined you would call me. But I got direct orders from our Tallest, not to receive your..."

"Again"

"Hi Zim. I imagined you would call me. But I got direct orders from our Tallest, not to..."

"AGAIN!"

"Hi Zim. I imagined you would call me. But I got direct orders from..."

Zim yelled the same word, over and over, until nanobots had to repair his vocal cords from straining too harshly. That's when he felt himself fall on his knees, dragging his arms on the control panel in front of him. Computer took pity on him, and erased the queue of call attempts he was making to invader Skoodge.

Dragging himself up after a while, he decided to do what he did best: ignore that anything happened, and turn back to his problems, until they disappeared.

Only they weren't going to do that any time soon.

He had actually tried calling after the worst day at skool, in which for the fifth week in a row, Zim had suffered Dib's harassment. Years ago this wasn't weird, and it was as good an exercise as any other. Except for the fact that he was actually being targeted in a flank he wasn't ready for. The emotional one.

He stood up in his living room, slightly cowering behind his couch when seeing the tall figure in his window, trying to look inside. He was sporting a smile, and seemed apologetic, even sweet. But Zim knew about bitter candy on Earth, and this was such the case.

"Zim, come on..." he begged "I will kiss you, okay? I washed my mouth for you, and I promise I will close my eyes this time"

"The human has handcuffs on him" Computer announced after a quick scan. Zim shuddered.

"I can... I mean, the cuffs are... you know, you get squirmy when I touch you, and your hands freak me out a bit. Let me in, I promise I won't hurt you"

Zim squeezed the couch in his hands, and held his breath, when he heard some banging on the door.

"Come on, Zim! You want this, don't you?? You said I was all you had left! You have nothing more! Come on!"

With a sharp breath, Zim rushed back into his lab, after giving the instruction not to let the human inside again. There had always been something terribly wrong about the way Dib had somehow used his crush against him, to kiss him and then ask for a blood sample. To hold his hand and pull him to dark places and tug his antennae, place his hands wherever he wanted, but never for Zim's benefit.

"I let you do this to me because you love me, and I respect that" he had said once to Zim.

Their fights were not about conquering Earth or saving humanity. They were about dissections and how justified this was, just because Dib was sacrificing himself greatly for the sake of Zim's feelings.

Zim wanted it all back. The Tallest, Skoodge, Dib... he wanted Dib back. He wanted his mission, and his nemesis. Even if he never had a chance to be his mate, still, he wanted back normality. He would get normality back.

"Computer, turn on the time machine, and bring me my tools" he ordered, going to the lab, ignoring the banging on the door and Dib's cruel words.

"Yes, Master"

"I will get it back. All of it. Zim will be complete again."

He knew it could backfire, it did in the past, but he had attempted to send inanimate objects which had a big impact, but not conscious enough to make it *right*. So he worked, tirelessly against his own fleeting sanity to perfect the machine as he needed.

Eventually he gasped, fascinated with his new calculations, and nodded to himself. This was alright. This was the right thing to do.

"Master, I don't think this will quite send you to the past, if you could look at this line in here..."

"Enough of that! It won't kill Zim, this will work! It has to work!" he demanded, stepping inside the chamber.

"What about GIR?" Computer insisted, trying to get to his master through the attachment with his SIR unit.

"GIR has to secure the base, once I confirm the past is stable, I will come back for him. Turn it on!"

"Is not the past you should be concerned about, Master! I mean it!" Computer tried again.

"OVERRIDE FREEWILL COMMAND. OBEY YOUR MASTER!" Zim had lost all his patience, and stomped the machine, as some rewiring sound made Computer groan in pain, and come back to him.

"Power on. Particle transmission in 3, 2, 1. Universe selected. Earth-B"

"Earth-B? WAIT, WHA---"

The travel and implications of being biologically disarmed and armed again was something he was too terrified to experience, once he had gained consciousness of his own self, standing in the same place in his base. But... this wasn't making any sense. He had programmed the past way before he had even considered creating the machine for time travel, so then, why... where was he?

"IDENTIFY YOURSELF!" a shreeling voice boomed all around the lab, and Zim's head rushed to the side, facing...

Himself.

He couldn't even think of talking, when his copy pulled out a blaster from his PAK, Zim unconsciously did the same, shooting first because questions were for corpses.

He gasped, watching GIR standing between himself and the way of the blast from the other of himself. Despite being a defective SIR unit, his armor was virtually impenetrable, so the blast barely made a dent in a sea of other little marks in his body.

"MASTAH YOU OKAY??" GIR's happy voice turned to him. No, it wasn't... it wasn't GIR's voice, it was just a different tone. A different accent. Zim looked at him for the longest time, until the robot announced to go find some tacos, and stepped over the corpse of his rightful master, as if it was never there.

Zim-B disappeared, leaving no trace whatsoever. As if his existence had been completely replaced by the best next thing.

Zim looked around, trying to assess the implications of killing this version of himself. To try and make sense of this equal, yet slightly different place he was sitting. How his own uniform started changing color, from pink to purple.

"Computer" he called.

"Yes, Master?" a female voice replied, cheerful. The tone was completely off-putting, and Zim decided against mentioning, as he was still stepping on eggshells, trying to figure out the new controls, the fact that he was not right handed anymore.

"Computer, if I were to attempt travelling to the past... what would happen?"

"Unwise to attempt, Master!" she answered "Time travel for irkens would cause anomaly as it cannot compensate for PAK coding. You would end up creating an alternate timeline that would collapse on itself if balance is not met!"

"How would I balance the new timeline?"

"Killing yourself, just like you did" Computer's tone immediately stopped being cheerful, and became patronizing "But I'll probably forget it in a few minutes. Just as you will forget your own time plane"

There was an eerie silence sitting between the two of them.

"Will I forget...? what about GIR? And my own computer! What about them??"

"You will forget them. Your previous reality will collapse on itself, and disappear in a void your size"

"But that is not possible!" Zim cried "MIR! I mean... HIR... WIR..." he grabbed his head, trying to remember the robot's name.

"His name is BIR here." Computer announced.

"Right, BIR... no, but... that's not right... or is it...?" He was trying to focus his mind on something, but it was like trying to catch clouds in his hands. They all condensed and dripped, before he could even understand what he was missing.

He had to come back to the machine, to... to…

"Zim?" Dib's voice sounded positively happy, and he smiled before he could even process that it was the same person that he was... or wasn't? Standing outside his home… But it was all wrong. Dib had the keys to his base. Dib… "Hey!" the smile of the young man appeared in front of him, sporting his signature trench coat, hair slicked back, and a pose straight and open, like a book willing to be explored at leisure.

It made him so happy to see him.

And he knew somehow this was wrong because... because…

"What were you doing? You said we'd go to the movies. Come on" he smiled, kissing his forehead, and placing a wig on him as he knew exactly how. ZIm allowed him, noticing the lack of scars in Dib's wrists, nails healthy and full, lips not chapped, and eyes bright and truly content.

"Yes... Zim will join you, I just need to do one more thing here. I'll follow in a moment"

"Alright, cool, I'll prepare BIR" he smiled again, as he turned around and jogged to the elevator, making dumb finger guns at him. Zim waved his hand, looking up, at where Computer always sat, waiting for commands.

"Stop thinking. Whatever made you come here, its lost" she prompted "I am losing the last bytes of information, I can't save it anymore, or I will collapse this time line too"

Zim held his breath, waiting for something to happen. For a little thought bubble to pop and hurt, before losing it all. But nothing happened. He just kept looking up until he blinked.

"What was I doing?"

"I don't know, Master! Dib-human is waiting, the movie will begin soon" she replied, going back to her cheerful tone.

"Ah, yes! the movie! Going, Dib-thing!" he yelled, grabbing his jacket on the way out and climbing on his human's back to kiss him and nuzzle his stubble. He always had it. Always.

Right?

"Zim is ready!"

"Dib is also ready, let's go!"

On the way out, Zim looked back at his base, noticing a figure standing by the door. It was tall, tall as Dib, but slouching. He saw it for a solid second before it disappeared, and he turned around to see his mate, shaking his shoulder.

"I saw a ghost, Dib-thing! Right there?"

"Oh, shit! really?? that's awesome! We'll investigate when we're back! What did it look like??"

"Well," Zim thought out loud, sitting on the passenger's seat of Dib's car "kinda looked like you, Dib-stink. But I can't see it anymore"

"Aw, well, we can go hunting more ghosts later on." he promised, turning on the engine, and driving away from there, tangling his fingers with Zim’s.

Away from more things either of them could imagine.

THE END.


End file.
